


Jurassicstuck

by digimaniac33



Category: Homestuck, Jurassic Park (1993)
Genre: Dinosaurs, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 11:16:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10830168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digimaniac33/pseuds/digimaniac33
Summary: A stormy night is really not the best time to try and outwit a T-Rex.





	Jurassicstuck

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stripe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stripe/gifts).



> Congrats on getting through the hard part, buddy.
> 
> There's more I've thought about for this world, but I haven't written much else yet. If I do write other stories, this will probably get a better title and be part of a series or something.
> 
> Basic important facts: John inherited Crocker Corp and used his wealth to build Jurassic Park, Jade's a paleontologist, they hadn't talked in a few decades until John invited Jade to check out the island before opening it to the public, Dave is Jade's grad student, Jane and Jake are John's grandkids, and Rose is also around - if other stories happen she gets to be awesome at dodging raptors, but that's a story for another time. Also the whole AU follows essentially the same path as the 1993 movie (though not an identical one).

Children. Jade thought going through menopause meant she'd never have to deal with them, and yet here they were. She just knew Dave would never let her live this down, even if she threatened to revoke his diploma and make him an undergraduate again. She could probably do it, too.

Of course, it was a little hard to hate them when they were clearly excited about the dinosaurs. It was hard to hate _anything_ when there were actual living dinosaurs walking around.

If only they just wouldn't talk so much.

"So Grandpa John told us they had to fix some of the dinosaurs with DNA from other animals, which is why they don't all have feathers like they should, but he's still got a few which are accurate-"

Jane interrupted her younger brother. "But you know, a lot of the general public really don't care about scientific accuracy, so he'd be better off trying to maximize visibility-"

"No way! How can you be so _boring_ about this, Jane?" The pair continued to squabble back and forth as Jade sighed and leaned her head back. In the rearview mirror, she could just barely see Dave stretching out in the backseat of the other van. He had the whole car to himself since Rose and John had stayed behind with those dinosaur keepers. She'd tried to stay, too, but the children had put up such a fuss she hadn't had the heart, and she hadn't realized Dave was in the other car until they were already moving.

 _He could have at least helped me out in here,_ she groused. _I should fail his ass when this trip is done._

As she devised a suitable revenge against John for leaving her, the vans came to a stop outside yet another exhibit with no obvious dinosaurs. The kids pressed up against the glass, but Jade didn't bother moving. It would show up or it wouldn't. Getting excited beforehand was just a waste of energy at this point.

She looked around instead, looking over the exhibit John had constructed. The tall electrified fences suggested this should be one of the main attractions, but the audio tour wasn't saying anything. There didn't seem to be any lights on, either - the torrential rain had confused her sense of time, but it seemed like the sun had set already. _Why are the floodlights out?_ she thought. _And why haven't we started moving again? We've been parked here much longer than our other stops..._

She looked around sharply now, dormant instincts from younger days screaming that something was wrong. As she looked, a slow rhythmic thud began in the distance. Each time it came, the van shook a little more, and the sound grew louder. No, _closer_.

"Hey." Her low urgent voice cut through whatever argument the children were having now. "Both of you, get away from the window and stay down low. Now."

"But we didn't see-" Jake started to say as Jane pulled him down, her heart pounding in sudden fear.

"Shush." Jade lowered her seat as far as it would go, in case she needed to get to the backseat in a hurry. All the while, that rhythmic thud got louder and louder and louder. She stared intently at the vegetation, cursing the rain for impeding her vision. There was nothing she could see.

Then the Tyrannosaurus Rex's head poked out of the treeline, and Jade's blood ran cold.

There was a frozen moment as the three humans looked at the ultimate apex predator. It swung its head around, searching for any sign of movement, but Jade kept herself entirely still. _It'll move on as long as we don't catch its attention._

Of course, at that point Jane started to scream, and Jake was just a moment behind her.

Jade pushed into the backseat and slapped a hand against each kid's mouth, but the damage was done. The T-Rex was now ponderously stepping towards their van. As it reached the fence, Jade held a tiny piece of hope that somehow the electric fence would still be working, but the T-Rex pushed through the wires easily, crushing that hope with just as much ease.

In too few steps the dinosaur was right beside their car, and no amount of working with bones had prepared Jade for the sheer mass of a living, breathing Tyrannosaurus Rex. She could feel the children starting to hyperventilate as the T-Rex leaned its head down, staring into the van with one eye. Jade met its gaze in a moment that seemed to last forever.

That moment was broken by the T-Rex lowering its head and nudging the van. The car broke off its rails and spun in a wide arc, the kids screaming beneath Jade's palms. Some part of Jade would've liked nothing more than to join them, but most of her was trying to figure out how they could survive the situation. Her mind raced through everything John had said about the vans. A wisp of memory came through - _"... and there's emergency supplies in the back of every car, you never know what could go wrong..."_ \- and Jade dived over the backseat, leaving the kids to scream their heads off. The damage was done, anyway - there was no way that beast would leave them alone now without some kind of distraction.

She tossed aside useless pamphlets and memorabilia as the van rocked back and forth, the T-Rex batting them around like a curious cat. She got her hands on a promising-looking toolbox and wrenched it open, hoping there would be something, anything to get them out safely. The first layer held a set of flares and a fire extinguisher, while underneath were some flashlights and a set of night vision goggles. _Radios, John! Try including radios in your emergency kits!_ Jade fumed as she grabbed a couple of flares and flashlights. He'd obviously tried, but his idea of an emergency was probably just somebody dropping a lit cigarette in the wrong area or something. She'd get his kits upgraded once they were out of this mess.

She turned to the window opposite of where the T-Rex now was. This window faced the jungle the T-Rex was supposed to inhabit, showing her the snapped wires of the defunct fence. Thankfully the window could open manually. Her barely-stitched-together plan would have had even less chance of succeeding if she couldn't open a window.

First, though, she had to stop the screaming children. The pair were staring at the dinosaur in abject terror, their voices strained from their sustained yelling. Jade trapped the flares and flashlights between her legs to stop them from rolling away at just the wrong moment, and then she clasped a hand against each kid's mouth again. "Jane, Jake, listen to me. I have a plan, and I will do everything I can to get both of you out of here alive, but I need you to be _silent_."

Jane's voice petered out and her eyes met Jade's, tears streaming openly down her face. Cautiously, Jade pulled back her hand to let Jane speak. "We can't, we can't get out, we're gonna die gonna die gonna die-!" Her voice rose in pitch until it was almost screaming again.

Jade shut her hand back over her mouth. "Stop. Screaming. I won't ask you not to panic, but do it quietly. I will get you out of this." She looked at Jake, who seemed to be almost catatonic now that she'd stopped his initial screaming. This time, when she lifted her hands, both of the siblings stayed quiet, though tears still poured down their faces. _That's fine. Crying is quiet._

The T-Rex was still rocking their van, seemingly trying to find some weak spot or provoke an attack from this unrecognizable creature in front of it. Carefully, Jade opened the window, moving as slowly as possible so as to avoid grabbing the dinosaur's attention until she wanted it. When she had it halfway open, she lit one of the flares and held it up.

The rocking stopped and she saw the T-Rex's head lower again, this time eyeing her through the skylight. She waved the flare from side to side, making sure the flare was what it was paying attention to, before flinging it out the open window. She stopped moving as soon as the flare was out of her hand and waited. There was nothing else she could do.

She didn't see her life flash before her eyes, but it did feel like she'd lived her life again five times over before the T-Rex finally began to stomp towards where she'd thrown the flare. She kept herself tensely still as the beast took one step, then another.

She had just enough time to think _Holy shit I might have pulled this off_ before the Tyrannosaurus Rex stopped and swung its head to the side. Briefly she thought it was coming back to their van, but then she saw the dancing red light and heard Dave's voice shouting over the storm. _Dave, you chivalrous fucking asshat!_ She had never been more furious or terrified in her life than when she saw Dave running away from the vans and the fence with his own flare held high over his head.

She watched just long enough to recognize Dave was running for some kind of building before she realized they needed to take advantage of the opportunity to escape. She could be angry at Dave once they were all safe and alive. She turned her back on Dave to focus on opening the door as quietly as she could. Behind her she heard a loud crashing noise, probably from the T-Rex destroying whatever building Dave was hiding in. She'd get him out after the kids were safe.

Jade slid out of the van, flashlights tucked under her armpits, and turned around to grab the kids by the elbows. The T-Rex seemed to be focused on taking down the remains of the building it had smashed through. That was fine by her. It could play at being Godzilla all night in her opinion. That would give them the chance to slip away.

(The thought of Dave lying crushed under that building kept trying to rise to the front of her mind, but she would have to worry about that later.)

She tugged the kids towards her, breaking their captivated stares. At first it seemed like they wouldn't move, but Jake suddenly refocused on her, like most of him had been a thousand miles away until that moment. He started pushing Jane towards the open door, whispering something quiet and urgent into his sister's ear that finally got her to move. When all three of them had their feet on the ground, Jade almost let out a sigh of relief.

Then, betrayed by years of muscle memory, Jake slammed the door shut.

Jade wanted to scream at him in anger, but the T-Rex's approaching footsteps told her this was not the time. Besides, Jake's face held the most devastated expression she'd ever personally witnessed. It would be worst than useless to take him to task for his actions right now.

She crouched behind the van instead, watching the T-Rex bound towards them. As the beast approached the back side of the car, she pushed the kids along to the front, keeping the van between them and the T-Rex as best she could. They played a morbidly ridiculous game of ring-around-the-rosie, the T-Rex changing direction once or twice just slow enough for Jade to follow.

As they moved, the van kept getting pushed back and forth by the T-Rex's bulk, moving them closer and closer to the barrier between them and the dinosaurs' habitat. Jade searched her mind desperately for some kind of plan, but it was all she could do to survive in the moment. The T-Rex stopped its circling, and for a moment Jade thought it had finally lost interest.

The roar that ripped through the air a second later robbed her of almost all capacity for rational thought. She cried out in pain, barely aware of the children doing the same. She covered her ears, too late to make any difference, and watched in horror as the T-Rex brought its head down low. She expected that mouth to reach straight for them and open wide. The flash of teeth didn't come for them, though. Instead, the dinosaur bit at the van. When it couldn't find a purchase point for its teeth, it shoved at the car, pushing it straight towards the barrier. Jade pulled the kids back with her, but they would be squished between the barrier and the van in no time.

Jade had no plan, no goal beyond the immediate one of survival. When she felt the barrier dangerously close, she instinctively scooped one of the kids into her arms and rolled straight over the barrier. She dropped down the other side and held to the top by the fingertips of one hand, her other arm supporting whichever kid she'd picked up.

In the few seconds before her fingers gave out and they fell straight down to the forest ground, one of the cables from the fence fell close enough for her to grab at it. Thankfully the kid had a death grip on her, so she could use her off hand to grab the cable. When she had both hands on it, she was able to focus on her surroundings again. She realized Jane was the one clinging to her and sobbing uncontrollably.

She didn't know where Jake was.

She couldn't worry about him right now.

She started slowly making her way down the wall as she watched above for any sign the T-Rex would be snapping down at them. It sounded like it was still smashing up the car, though - perhaps it thought their screams had come from the van. That could be the good luck that granted their survival.

Bit by bit, Jade made her way down the wall. Later, she could never say just how long that journey had taken. Part of her swore it had been over in minutes, while another knew she'd been climbing down that wall for years in an eternal stormy night.

However long it took, they did reach the bottom without seeing the T-Rex again. Jade immediately pushed into the undergrowth, Jane still clinging to her. Now that she wasn't hyper-focused on an immediate task, Jane's weight was starting to become an issue for Jade. She could handle it for a little longer, though. They couldn't leave until she knew what had happened to Jake, after all.

From her hiding spot, Jade could just see the T-Rex pushing the car against the barrier, biting at its frame from time to time. As it pushed further and further, the van began to roll onto the barrier. Then, like an Olympic athlete on the high dive, the van suddenly swung up and over and down, spinning down the barrier until it crashed into the forest ground. The T-Rex gazed at it from above, as if considering whether it was worth climbing down to take its prize. Apparently it hadn't liked the taste of whatever bites it had managed to take, though, as it stepped off and looked around instead. Something about its stance pushed Jade into action, throwing her hands around Jane's ears just before the Tyrannosaurus Rex let out another ear-splitting roar. Jade winced, but knowing that it was coming helped to mitigate the pain a little.

Once it had declared victory, the T-Rex turned and ambled off in some other direction. Jade waited until she could only just feel the vibration from its footsteps before trying to approach the van. Before she took one step, though, she pulled Jane's arms from around her neck.

When she realized Jade was trying to get away from her, Jane started wailing and clung to her even harder. Jade growled in frustration and whispered harshly, "Let go of me, you idiot. I'm going to check out the van and I can't have you hanging off me like this!"

Jane just shook her head and clung harder, whispering something fiercely under her breath. It took Jade a little while to understand what she was saying. "You can't leave, you're gonna leave me and I'm gonna die, I'll die, I'll-"

Jade pulled Jane off her just enough to lock eyes with the hysterical girl. "I'm coming right back, Jane. I'm putting you down, and I'm going over to the van, and then I'm coming right back." She stared into the girl's eyes, trying to convince her by force of will alone.

Something in her eyes must have reached Jane, because after a short time her grip slackened and she let Jade place her on the ground. The sudden loss should have made Jade feel lighter, but it just made her want to collapse in a pile and sleep for five years at least. She'd given up adventuring years ago for a good reason, after all.

She couldn't sleep, though. Not yet. So she forced herself over to the van, hoping against all reason that she'd find a living little boy in there. If she didn't, the guilt would eat her alive.

Her heart sank as she approached the van and heard nothing from its depths. _It held its shape, at least. That could've given him a better chance. If he's even in there._ In fact, the van looked much better than she expected, knowing it had been pushed around and chewed on by a T-Rex before rolling down a cliff. Most wondrous of all, it had even landed on its wheels. It felt too bizarre to be real.

Jade reached out with one shaking hand to pull open a door, the same door they'd all escaped out of an eternity ago. She closed her eyes, steeling herself for whatever awaited her inside, and then she looked in.

Jake looked back at her from where he was wedged under the seat she had lowered, bleeding and bruised and crying but definitely still alive. "I don't like T-Rexes anymore," he said plaintively.

Jade carefully extricated him from his safe spot, making sure he hadn't broken any bones in the process, before pressing him to her chest in shock and joy. He clung to her just as hard, and somehow they made their way to Jane, who joined their desperate embrace, and for a moment Jade let herself forget that they would soon have to hike through unknown and yet terrifyingly familiar territory, forget that she'd have to escort these two unprepared, defenseless kids past dangers she barely felt capable of handling herself, forget that for the first time in years she had no plan, no guide, and no guarantee that she'd make it home in one piece.

For a moment, Jade let herself forget, and simply reveled in the fact that at that moment, they were alive.


End file.
